Ms. Pacman
'' Ms. Pac-Man'' is an arcade video game produced by Midway as an unauthorized sequel to Pac-Man. It was released in North America in 1981 and became one of the most popular video games of all time, leading to its adoption by Pac-Man licensor NamcoThe gameplay of Ms. Pac-Man is largely identical to that of the original Pac-Man. The player gathers points by eating dots and avoiding ghosts (contact with one loses a life). Power-pellets or energizers change the ghosts, which reverse their course and can be eaten for bonus points. Fruit bonuses can be consumed for increasing point values, twice per level. As the levels increase, the speed and difficulty increase as well. There are, however, some notable differences: *The game has four different mazes that appear in different sets of colors. *Most of the new mazes have two sets of warp tunnels. *Unlike the original Pac-Man, the spaces in between the walls are filled in, making it easier to see where the path is. *The ghosts' behavior patterns are different and include semi-random movement, precluding the use of patterns to beat each level. *Instead of appearing in the center of the maze, fruits bounce around the maze, entering and leaving through the warp tunnels. Once all fruits have been encountered, they appear in random sequence for the rest of the game. *The orange ghost's name is Sue instead of Clyde. *The three intermissions have changed to follow the developing relationship between Pac-Man and Ms. Pac-Man (from when they first meet to having a stork drop off their baby). *The sound effects and music of the game are very different from the Pac-Man sounds. As in Pac-Man, the game has a bug in the subroutine that draws the fruit, which renders the 256th level unplayable. However, the game also has other bugs that cause it to crash or become unplayable much sooner, making it impossible to reach the 256th level without anemulator.[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Ms._Pac-Man&action=edit&section=2 editHistory Ms. Pac-Man was originally conceived as an enhancement kit for Pac-Man called Crazy Otto, created by programmers employed at the General Computer Corporation (GCC).[2] While Crazy Otto was under development, GCC settled a lawsuit with Atari over their Missile Command conversion kit Super Missile Attack. Part of the settlement terms barred GCC from selling future conv ersion kits without consent from the original game manufacturer. Rather than scrapping Crazy Otto entirely, the programmers decided to show it to Midway, Namco's American distributor of the original game. Midway had become impatient in waiting for Namco to release its next Pac-Man game (which would be Super Pac-Man), and were enthusiastic that such a game had come to their attention. They bought the rights to Crazy Otto, changed the sprites to fit the Pac-Man universe, renamed the game Ms. Pac-Man, and released it into arcades.[3] Shortly before release, Stan Jarocki of Midway stated that Ms. Pac-Man was conceived in response to the original Pac-Man being "the first commercial videogame to involve large numbers of women as players" and that it is "our way of thanking all those lady arcaders who have played and enjoyed Pac-Man."[4] The game was later awarded the Certificate of Merit as runner-up for Coin-Op Game of the Year at the 1982 Arcade Awards held in January 1983.[5] After the game became wildly popular, Midway and GCC undertook a brief legal battle concerning royalties. The Killer List of Videogames notes that the game was accomplished without Namco's consent, causing bot h companies to eventually turn over the rights of Ms. Pac-Man to Namco. Ms. Pac-Man was reportedly the first of a series of unauthorized sequels that eventually led to the termination of the licensing agreement between Namco and Midway.[2] GCC co-founder Doug Macrae has disputed stories that the game was manufactured without Namco's blessing, claiming that then-Namco president Masaya Nakamura had even provided feedback over character artwork during the game's development.[3] Ms. Pac-Man was later released on the third Namco Museum game; however, there is no mention of it in Namco's official archives (including the archives on all of the Namco Museum releases). In 2001, Namco released an arcade board featuring both Ms. Pac-Man and Galaga in honor of the 20th anniversary of both games with the subtitle "20 Year Reunion / Class of 1981". It also features Pac-Man as a hidden bonus game. The later 25th Anniversary Edition allows all three games to be selected at the main menu.[citation needed] as an official title. This game introduces a female protagonist, new maze designs and several minor gameplay changes over the original game. References #'^' Donhodges.Com—Ms. Pac-Man's Kill Screens Analyzed And Fixed #^ [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ms._Pac-Man#cite_ref-klov_1-0 a''] [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ms._Pac-Man#cite_ref-klov_1-1 ''b] Ms. Pac-Man Videogame by Midway (1981) - The International Arcade Museum and the KLOV #^ [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ms._Pac-Man#cite_ref-macrae_2-0 a''] [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ms._Pac-Man#cite_ref-macrae_2-1 ''b] Doug Macrae from GCC speaks at California Extreme 2010 #'^' Worley, Joyce (May 1982). "Women Join the Arcade Revolution". Electronic Games 1''' (3): 30-33 33. Retrieved 3 February 2012. #^ [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ms._Pac-Man#cite_ref-eg_archive_4-0 ''a''] [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ms._Pac-Man#cite_ref-eg_archive_4-1 ''b''] [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ms._Pac-Man#cite_ref-eg_archive_4-2 ''c''] "Electronic Games Magazine". Internet Archive. Retrieved 1 February 2012. #^' Coleco Ms Pac Man #'^' Reichert, Matt. "5200 Rumor Mill: Puffer Ms. Pac-Man". Retrieved 2007-10-24. #'^' Welcome to JAKKS TV Games >> Ms. Pac-Man #'^' Ms. Pac-Man Game Detail Page, xbox.com #'^' Ms. PAC-MAN now available for your iPod #'^' http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0083461/ #'^' "My Own Private Practice Guy". Director: Marc Buckland, Writers: Angela Nissel, Mark Stegemann. ''Scrubs. NBC. 2003-03-13. No. 41. Retrieved on 2011-10-04. #'^' "A Modest Proposal". Director: Michael Trim, Writer: Vanessa Reisen. Weeds. Showtime. 2009-07-13. No. 6, season 5. Retrieved on 2011-10-04. #'^' "I Married Marge". Director: Jeffrey Lynch, Writer: Jeff Martin. The Simpsons. Fox. 1991-12-26. No. 47. Retrieved on 2011-10-04. #'^' "Meet the Quagmires". Directors: Dan Povenmire, Chris Robertson, Writer: Mark Hentemann. Family Guy. Fox. 2007-05-20. No. 98. Retrieved on 2011-10-04. #'^' "Anthology of Interest II". Director: Bret Haaland, Writers: Lewis Morton, David X. Cohen, Jason Gorbett, Scott Kirby. Futurama. Fox. 2002-01-06. No. 50. Retrieved on 2011-10-04. #'^' Hall, Jace (2009-03-19). "Tom Green & Everquest Anniversary". Crackle. Retrieved 2010-04-04. #'^' "The one where Joey dates Rachel". Director: David Schwimmer, Writers: David Crane, Marta Kauffman. Friends. Warner. 2002-01-10. No. 182. Retrieved on 2011-11-27. #'^' "The Top 200 Games of All Time". Game Informer (200): 44–79. December 2009. ISSN 1067-6392. OCLC 27315596. http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Ms._Pac-Man&action=edit&section=8 editExternal links *[http://strategywiki.org/wiki/Ms._Pac-Man Ms. Pac-Man guide] at StrategyWiki Category:Namco Category:Arcade games Category:Pacman Category:Midway Mfg. Co.